Bill brings some help for opiate addiction, but more is needed

Saturday

May 17, 2014 at 12:01 AMMay 17, 2014 at 11:28 AM

Abuse, neglect and exploitation are nothing new for thousands of Ohio children and seniors. And helping care for them is one of the most important functions for county-level social-services agencies in all 88 Ohio counties.

Abuse, neglect and exploitation are nothing new for thousands of Ohio children and seniors. And helping care for them is one of the most important functions for county-level social-services agencies in all 88 Ohio counties.

Ohio’s recent surge in heroin and opiate addiction is flooding these agencies with considerable numbers of new dependent children and elderly parents in need of care and protection. These children and seniors are truly the hidden casualties of Ohio’s heroin and opiate epidemic.

For example, an amazing 15,000 Ohio children entered county child-welfare programs in 2013 because of a substance-abusing guardian. At least half of the children of substance-abusing guardians remain in the county’s custody for 300 days or more, compared with the average 70-day stay. That’s nearly one full year of being removed from their normal, daily lives. Child abuse and neglect reports in which heroin was listed as a factor increased from 4.9 percent of total reports in 2010 to 8.9 percent in 2013.

Also last year, the word heroin or cocaine appeared in more than 17,000 child-welfare case reports.

Although Ohio ranks 50th in the nation in its proportion of overall state investment in child welfare, it leads the nation in local child-welfare investment. However, funding is extremely inequitable: 45 counties have local levies, but 43 do not. The combination of state and local funding drives a federal reimbursement that offers additional help, but the low-resourced counties end up receiving less federal funding.

Additionally, state support to local child-welfare agencies was cut by 20 percent in the past few years.

With respect to at-risk seniors, a recent national study found that 11 percent of older adults have reported some form of abuse. A 2010 Ohio study estimated that as many as 90,000 to 115,000 Ohio seniors aged 60 or older were harmed by abuse, neglect or exploitation, although only 7,530 cases were reported to county agencies.

Ohio law requires that every county provide Adult Protective Services (APS). However, 39 Ohio counties — nearly half — lack even one full-time APS worker. And state funding to support the hiring of such caseworkers is essentially insignificant.

There is some good news to report. I commend Gov. John Kasich and the General Assembly for their ongoing efforts to combat the heroin and opiate addiction epidemic in Ohio. In fact, numerous additional bills are now pending before the legislature. And Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Elder Abuse Commission has recommended a number of amendments to the law to further protect Ohio seniors.

However, Ohio also needs a “wrap-around” approach that addresses those hidden casualties of our state’s heroin and opiate epidemic whose lives have been turned upside-down by their addicted parent or caretaker: the kids left without a guardian and elderly people who experienced theft or other forms of abuse.

Fortunately, some help is already on the way, and more may be on the horizon. In its work on Kasich’s mid-biennium budet review, the Ohio House of Representatives approved House Bill 483, which included $20 million in new funding to be split evenly between county child welfare and Adult Protective Services programming. The Ohio Senate is currently considering whether to add another $20 million to this legislation, which would be appropriated in similar fashion.

This additional $40 million certainly will bring some desperately needed relief for our strained county social-services agencies, but the needs are much greater. Nevertheless, I regard the legislature’s work in this regard as a solid down-payment toward a more significant and lasting solution in the next two-year state budget.